from Lucy Griffiths

Island Friends: Engaging the Youngest Learners

with Entrepreneurship

THINK BIG

believing in possibilities

broadening horizons

seeing beyond perceived limiting factors

CREATE IT

Using imagination

Identifying opportunities and problems

Generating ideas and solutions

Evaluating ideas and solutions

Decision making

Creating and implementing  innovative responses

preface

The goal of our project was to let students reflect upon effective ways of helping eTwinning project partners to gain confidence in a new language with the real aim of feeling comfortable during a school exchange. They should be given the possibility to interact in the group, with external experts and relatives. We wanted them to learn to share responsibility and take substantive decisions on content tools, the final product to be realized and ways to interact and share feedback in a fair and sustainable way accepting to be assessed and criticized in the same constructive way. They should improve listening and comprehension skills by collaborating with project partners and with external experts.

They should deepen, reinforce and implement previous knowledge, reinforcing and widening vocabulary by learning new words concerning the kind of experience they would have been confronted with. They should train and reinforce also their communicative competences in several specific fields as articles for the local newspaper, advertising and videos.They should be able to learn to speak and to write for a specific audience, communicate with foreign project partners and create also a final presentation for their parents and the parents of project partners.

Beside that our goal as teachers was to help our students to open themselves to the others sharing a growth path in which didactical innovation takes place through a responsible and respectful use of technologies. To this end it is important to help students to reflect upon the way they have been working and collaborating with project partners and their classmates.

In this e-book we collected all the logbooks we asked our students to write following the driving questions we put down together with them. They had to think about their work on the project, their experiences they collected by working in national and international teams. We wanted them to find out what had worked well and what has to be done better next time.

Unfortunately, there were some students who had not understood the spirit of the project at that moment and some of them left childish comments that we did not eliminate and that helped us to understand which students needed more explanation. But of course, there were also some negative points that we will take into consideration for our next project. In general, most of the students saw positive aspects in the project and appreciated the possibilities they had been given by collaborating with their partners on the project.

Considering the whole experience, we can confirm that this project gave our students the opportunity to develop some important transversal 21st century skills such as problem solving, team working, active listening, empathic thinking, learning to learn, learning to collaborate and to help each other.

Most of them really recognized that
“Digital competence involves the confident and critical use of ICT for employment, learning, self-development and participation in society” (European commission 2005)

first of all some Golden Rules

CATASTROFE STRATEGICA – STRATEGICAL CATASTROPHE

These were our driving questions for the logbooks:

Who was in your group?

Was the work load distributed equally? Has everybody contributed? If not, why?

Was there anything in the group that didn’t work? What, why?

Have you done everything possible to contribute to the success of the work?

What could have been done differently?

What could be improved, according to you?

Were the partners’ videos useful? If not, say why!

What are the most useful and most important experiences of the project?

What should absolutely be avoided?

Name some words in the partners’ language that best summarize the experience.

Attach a picture that best represents the experience.

What’s your assessment of the project?

What’s your assessment of the exchange?

Carlotta Guidetti

In our group we were 4 people,the work was distributed equally, we had fun doing this work and everybody collaborate.

We were a little bit embarassed when we filmed the scenes because we were in our school and everybody could see us but finally we made a good video.I think we could do more scenes but it’s ok because in this way it’s easier the comprehension of the video.

Our partner’s videos were useful and I learnt a lot of new words, but unfortunately I already know how to buy clothes ,in german,in a shop.

I think that in this exchange I will always remember the people I met, and also my family’s partner, one thing I didn’t like is that we had to go to regensburg without our partners because they had to stay in school.

I learnt how to use etwinning but i don’t think I will use it again because it’s not so useful in my daily routine, but there are a lot of new germans words I learnt and i think i will use them again.

The exchange and the project were very helpful to learn a new language and also to meet new people, furthermore i had a lot of fun.

Partners words to explain my experience in german: schwarze schwirtzen und pferdeschwanz.

Eleonora Tosi

I will start saying that this was one of the best week i have ever spent.

I was very glad to have Angi as an exchange partner, she is such a wonderful, kind, pretty, intelligent, funny girl, i love her so much.

She touched my heart, and i will keep every memory of us.

I’m writing this thing the last day of the exchange and i’m so sad to leave these guys and this place.

Here i had the opportunity to improve my German and also my English thanks to the video we made in english and also in italian

In fact we were two groups and two different videos: the italian one made by me, Chiara Covezzi, Alessandro Fracavallo, Francesco Marchi, Cristian Grosu and we made a funny but embarrassing video about italian slangs, we had so much fun making it.

The mixed group was made by Hannah, Mariachiara, Lilli, Alice, Margo, Constantin, Maria Vittoria, Angi and me we shot a video about how someone should behave at home.. it was pleasant

The work was equally divided, we did our best, we spent time, chacklaws doing the videos.

This experience means so much for me.

I loved the house where i was,

I loved the family, Angi’s mother was so cute and nice, she reminded me to my mother, i felt like i was at home in Italy.

This was my first time going abroad alone, i learnt so many thing about myself, i learnt that i can trust on myself, that i just need to listen to my thoughts sometimes, and don’t be mad with me.

I learnt that you don’t have to judge people, i learnt that you have to talk deeply with people before judging them.

I had already known these things but this experience made them became stronger

I learnt so many new words and I become more confident with my german.

I think i said everything

Oh just one thing at least

Taking that bus was the best decision i have ever made.

Alice Timò

Hello! I’m Alice Timó and I took part in  an exchange with German students.
Thanks to Etwinning, we had the opportunity to comunicate with them trough videos and chats.
We divided in 5 groups: things to say at school, at home, at a restaurant, in a shop and slangs.
In Italy, I worked with Carlotta, Andrea, Letizia and Arianna and their partner Johannes, Michael, Viola, Magdalena and mine, Lilli. We were ten people.
But nobody of the German had studied Italian, so we had this problem.
Our topic was how to act at school. We made a video about things to say at school. Then the German students made the same, talking in Italian. We also made logos and memes.
The work wasn’t equally divided. Not all the german students of our group had cooperated. Some of them made logos on their own, not with their Italian partners.
We could have organised it better.
When we were in Germany I worked with Eleonora, Maria Vittoria, Maria Chiara and their partners Angelina, Constantin, Hannah and mine, Lilli. We were in eight.
We worked together equally. We made a video about things to say at home. The video made by the germans was really useful.
I learnt how to work in group despite the different languages, how to use Etwinning, Learning Apps, Tagul, Keep Calm and Imgur.
I will surely use again Tagul and Learning Apps because they were really useful.
I really enjoyed this exchange and I had so much fun with my friends.
Unfortunately, my partner and I didn’t talk much. Der Austausch war lustig.

Letizia Ronchetti

Hi! I’m Letizia and I’m going to talk about this exchange.

At the beginning we were divided in some groups who did videos for our partners to teach them some words and sentences in Italian.

A group made a video about slang, others the house, restaurant, shops and our group, that was composed by Andrea, Alice, Arianna, Carlotta and I, we made it about the school.

The work was distributed fairly because in that we worked together and recorded the video in the school.

Something hasn’t worked because some students, included me, spoke with low voice volume so we couldn’t hear but anyway they were well done and funny.

I did my best to speak louder and act well to make a good video Maybe we spoke too fast but it was clear and understandable.

Our partners made videos for us in German and my partner, Viola, made a video about slang of Germany and we learnt some words like “isso” or “übelst”.

I like very much this experience because I saw new cities and got in touch with different cultures from mine. In this exchange I learnt how to use some programmes like Tagul or Tricider and Etwinning.

The exchange has been useful because I got in touch with persons, even if at the beginning we were a little shy and we didn’t speak  that much. Some words that can describe this exchange well for me are: Freundschaft, Austausch, Stadt, besuchen.

Serena Sorrentino

Hello, I’m Serena,

During the first part of the project I was in the “Shop group” with Melania Romano, Maria Vittoria Nicolini, Rebecca Pederzoli and Francesca Cipolli.

We work very hard and together. We didn’t have a lot of problems but at the beginning some things were difficult, but we did our best to make a great video.

I think that me and my friend did our best. Everybody did something and everybody worked a lot, our work was successful and we also had fun doing the video because we are all friend and we helped each other.

We all cooperated and everyone had good ideas.

As far as I’m concerned I believe that we did everything very well, because add subtitles on the video, we add a summary and we also deliver the video on time.

In the second part of the project (in Germany) I was in another amazing group. I was with Rebecca, Francesca, Andrea, Francesco and our partners: Leon, Sebastian, Christina, Michael and Lukas. I was very happy because we worked very well together. We learned a lot of thing in German and my favourite word is “Packmas”. We worked equally but the german guys edited the video because they wanted to and the didn’t need any help.

I liked our video but maybe we could have organise it better because we was the “Restaurant Group” but we didn’t have food and stuff like that. I had a lot of fun doing the video.

Also the german guys did some videos like ours but in german of course and we learned a lot like how to interact in a shop, in a restaurant, at  home, and how to talk with other people; the videos were very helpful.

I have to admit that I’m not that good using the computer and this exchange really helped me how to learn using apps and websites. I will use again “tagul”, and “learning apps” because they are really easy to use and with these websites you can do a lot of things.

This exchange was really precious we did’t only learn some german words and sentences but also how germans live and how to live in somebody else house. I think that this experience is precious and we will remember this exchange forever.

Some german words that can sum up this experience are: toll, spass, erfahrungsbringend, spaßig and freundachaftsbildend.

VIOLA BALTZER

Hello my name is viola. I was in the teenage slang group with Anna Kick, Sara Ghodratinezhad, Marina Pastore, Jacqueline Götz, Melania Romano, Sofia Tafaro, Letiza Ronchetti, Anna Bazzoni and Sofia Bratti. The preparations and also the video shoot went well, only the editing posed a little problem because nobody knew how to do it properly. But in the end everything was fine. We also worked quite well as a team, we helped each other when someone had a problem. The only thing to improve is that there should be more structure because in some moments we didn’t know what to do. What I liked best about the project was the interaction between German and Italians. The videos were okay, even if I had sometimes problems understanding what was said because of the low volume. In my opinion it won’t be too difficult to understand Italian if you are already able to speak French or Spanish. Words that describe my experiences in the exchange are amicizia and divertente. The project was a good way to get closer to the Italian language and culture. The exchange was really cool and I’m happy that I was able to participate in it.

Christina Biebl

I worked in a group with Sebi, Michi, Leon,Lukas, Andrea, Francesco, Rebecca, Serena & Francesca. We did a video about how to order something in a restaurant. The project worked quite well but we had some problems as well. If we initially had talked more about the organisation and the distribution of the tasks it would have been very helpful for us because sometimes we didn’t know what to do.With a better organisation and more motivation we could have been more productive.

Furthermore the using of the e-twinnig page wasn’t quite easy as well, we often didn’t know where to upload the materials and we needed to spend a lot of time by trying to get everything work out. On the other side we also did learn much about the italian lifestyle and culture. The videos were very helpful, therefore we knew how to behave in different situations in Italy. We also learnt a lot of new expressions and how to use them.

So I think the project and the exchange provided a great opportunity for us to improve our italian skills and get to know interesting people and other cultures.

Emily Wolfinger

I was in a group with Luisa Spoeth, Nicolas von Bohlen, Johannes Faltenbacher and Maximilian Dietrich. During the etwinning project we worked as a team and everybody had to do the same things except Johannes. He did the most , because he was the only one who knows how to cut a video and how to upload the videos, logos and pictures on the right pages in etwinning. Everything worked pretty good and we had a lot of fun during filming the video.

I did everything I had to do and I think that I did it well.

Johannes could have chosen an other type of music at the end of our video, because I think it was a little bit too aggressive.;)

But we had one big problem:

every time we wanted to work for the project in school we had way too less laptops that we can use so we couldn’t work in a stress-free atmosphere.

The videos of the italians were really useful and helped me a lot and right now I can buy myself some ice cream in italian.

It has to be avoided that the subtitles in the videos are in the same language as the spoken text in the video in order to help the ‚learning ones‘ to understand what is spoken.

Some italian words that describe the exchange are benissimo, molto bene, belli, nuovi amici and oddio.

All in all the exchange was a really nice experience and I’m glad I took part in it. I think that the project was an important part in the exchange and it gave it a topic. Otherwise it would just have been like a tourism week.

Andrea Rossi

I was in a group with Luisa Spoeth, Nicolas von Bohlen, Johannes Faltenbacher and Maximilian Dietrich. During the etwinning project we worked as a team and everybody had to do the same things except Johannes. He did the most , because he was the only one who knows how to cut a video and how to upload the videos, logos and pictures on the right pages in etwinning. Everything worked pretty good and we had a lot of fun during filming the video.

I did everything I had to do and I think that I did it well.

Johannes could have chosen an other type of music at the end of our video, because I think it was a little bit too aggressive.;)

But we had one big problem:

every time we wanted to work for the project in school we had way too less laptops that we can use so we couldn’t work in a stress-free atmosphere.

The videos of the italians were really useful and helped me a lot and right now I can buy myself some ice cream in italian.

It has to be avoided that the subtitles in the videos are in the same language as the spoken text in the video in order to help the ‚learning ones‘ to understand what is spoken.

Some italian words that describe the exchange are benissimo, molto bene, belli, nuovi amici and oddio.

All in all the exchange was a really nice experience and I’m glad I took part in it. I think that the project was an important part in the exchange and it gave it a topic. Otherwise it would just have been like a tourism week.

Chiara Cinganelli

I’m very proud of all the work that I did with my mates.In my Italian group we were five people:Chiara mescoli,Anna Bazzoni,Alessia Saetti,Sara Drusiani and me. Our work talked about how someone should act in restaurant, how should someone order and should pay. We worked all together and the final result of the video was very useful and well done. Everyone had a specific part in the video and there weren’t any problems, the work was equally divided and we had a lot of fun..maybe we could add something else to make the video more interesting but we did all the best we could do.I think that all of Our partners’ videos were very well done, some of them were very useful because they told us how to interact in a restaurant or in the House but others were not that useful because they made a video where they explained things that I had already known.  I’m lucky to have Felix as my exchange partner because he’s a nice guy and I will keep all of our memories in my heart. I really loved everything about this exchange,the House,the food, Felix s mom and all the places that i saw. I improved my german and also my english, I knew beautiful people that treated me always with respect and kindness. I believe that everyone should do an experience like this one because you learn different cultures,people and also more things about yourself. I learnt that I can survive even without my parents and that I can simply interact with people that don’t speak my language,now i feel more confident with myself.

Melania Romano

During the first part of the project I was in “Shop Group” with Maria Vittoria, Serena, Rebecca and Francesca, so we were in five. We got well along,in fact we had fun making the videos. we all did something so the work was divided equitably. everything was well done because we worked hard and well.

I believe I have done everything that I had to do, but I could help more with the subtitles. I liked making video with the Germans in Italian and in German.

my partner made the video to explain the slangs in German, the video was clear like the subtitles,so I understood everything.  she worked with the partners of Sofia

Bratti, Sofia Tafaro, Letizia and Anna Rachele.

Obviously my favourite part of the exchange was to know Jacqueline and her family. we really had good time in Italy and in Germany. Then this project helped me to become friend with my classmates and talk with all of them more than before. But I’m sorry for Jacqueline because she had to study while I was in Germany.

I learned how to use eTwinning and work in a group with the goal to create useful videos. I also learn to use “Tagul” and “Learning Apps”. I think that if in future I have to create a logo I will use Tagul.

I really enjoyed to host a person in my house and present her to my family and I liked living with her in my and her home because we got on very well.

during this period I learned new words in German that can describe this experience: “krass”, “geile Zeit”, “Spass”, “Freundschaft”, “Erlebnis” and “voll schoen”. But my favourite is “ Krass”.

To sum up I really really enjoyed this experience because I knew new and amazing people and because I visited a new country where I have never been!

Maria Chiara De Pompei

My group was composed by 5 people : me , Maryam , Sofia Bratti , Sofia Tafaro and Marianna.
The work was  fairly divided and everyone has worked.
All of us have collaborated and we have finished the video in a few hours.
Everything went well and I have done a lot of parts to help my friends to make an effective video .
I believe that , behind this project , there was a good organisation and we have done a very useful work.
Our partners’ videos helped me to improve my german and they were very well done but , frankly , they have talked too fast for me .
The only thing that we could have improved is the speed they talked with .
The things that I liked the most are : the visit of the city of Norimberg because it is very beautiful and I had fun with my friends , the visit of the city of Monaco , which is an amazing place and the visit of the city of Regensburg .
The only thing of all we have done that should be avoided is the several numbers of the guided visited . Also in Italy we had a lot of them and it was a little bit boring.
I have learnt how to use etwinning and learning apps , with which we have created the quiz.
I think in the future I will use it but not etwinning .
Personally , I believe that this project has helped us to improve the languages and stay together.
This exchange was a beautiful experience that helped me to open my mind to others cultures and improve my german . Besides , I have also learnt how to adapt myself to particular situations and to be more outgoing .
Some words that can summarise this experience are : AUSTAUSCH , FREUNDSCHAFT , KULTUR und KENNENLERNEN.

Sara Ghodratinezhad

I was in the slang group with Jacqueline, Viola, Marina, Anna, Melania, Letizia, Sofia, Anna and Sofia. Our video making was a good result of group work and everyone did something to help. Generally, there were no specific problems we couldn´t handle on our own. We had to cut the video at home because there weren´t so many laptops but that was no problem for us. I tried my best to get a good and I know that I could have done a little bit more but in the end we were successful. For us it was important to reach a good working atmosphere and a good team work. The videos from our partners were helpful because of explanations. Even when the sound wasn´t that good, the explanations were.

The whole thing was a good experience and we enjoyed the good team work.

Amicizia, divertente, esperiensa are the words most describing for this exchange.

This project was a successful one. I would recommend to do an exchange like this, too because it´s full of experiences, new things you get to learn. You get to know about another country, society, language and culture. During this time you have to learn to be more independent than at home and it`s also good for making new friends.

Magdalena Rindler

My group consisted of: Hannah Soderer, Magdalena Rindler, Angelina Nickel, Constantin Skrzydlo  und Lilli Weiß. Our main topic were questions in the house of strangers and how to behave there. We all worked together and gave our best for reaching the greatest possible potential but with fun and joy. At first we didn’t think that it would be that much effort and that it’s necessary to aply so much concentration. In the end our ideas got better and better and we also had a lot of fun despite the time pressure. It was good that we had that much creative freedom so we could let our creative and individual thougts run free. The huge effort and time for cutting the video was a negative aspect and also the time we’ve spend in school for the project was way too much. In the future that much time required should be avoided.
The most useful experience were getting tought how to use the videos (in the unknown language) for learning the phrases and questions which were shown in these.
Words in italian which sum up the project:
Interessante, fresco, divertente e disponibile, a volte noioso e frustrante.

My opinion to the eTwinning project: It’s a nice, useful and modern concept of learning and being connected to a different country, culture and people there. But in my opinion it wasn’t something I really enjoyed. It took way too much time which could have used better. For example exploring the culture in real life, hiking in the foreign scenery or meeting new people and getting a experience we’ll never forget again. That is my idea of an exchange!!
My conclusion to the exchange: The exchange gave us the possibility to make new friends, let us experience a new and foreign culture though the project took a lot of time effort and nerves.

Greetings,

Sofia Bratti

In our group we were 5 people of our class :me,Marianna,Maria Chiara,Sofia Tafaro and Maryam.I think the work was divided fairly and equally into us: at least all of us filmed the video and we all acted in the video but only me and Sofia edited it and she

posted it on eTwinning but It was not boring we had a lot of fun watching our scenes.All the people of our group had collaborated for the succeed of the video.I believe that we didn’t have any problem because all of us were interested to create an effective video and we all put ourself on it.I think the only  problem that we had was the little time to upload our video.In my opinion I do all that I can to make this video understandable .Maybe the only thing that we could have done better was the speed of our voices in the video or at least this was what the germans told us but I think it was good and with attention people could have understood us. This video also helped us to know each other better and we had a good time together.I think that the video of our parteners was useful and helped us to improve our german.In particular the video of my partner was very well done.The scenes were well-lighted so that  we could see clearly and we could also understand all of what they said.They have done  the slang video and we could have learnt some new words of the youg people language like “sers digga” that is a way to say hello to your friends or “isso” that means exactly.The things that I like most of this exchange have been for sure the visits of the cities because I like discovering new places.For example we visited Regensburg and Nürnberg and with my partner and her family we went also to Marienbad. Mabye something that could have been avoided was the full program that we had  especially in Italy because we did’t have much free time to show our partners new things.I think the program in germany had got better.This experience made me learn how to use some new programs like eTwinning  and Tagul but also how to edit a video on the computer and that can help me also for other subjects’ projects.I think I will never forget this experience that has made me grow up and improve my german.With this exchange I had also the possibility to know new kinds people and different cultures.Some words that describe this exchange could be: Austausch,Besischigung,Freundschaft,kennenlernen and Stadt.

Lilli Weiss

In my group was angelina, hannah, magdalena, eleonora, constantin, alice, mary, …
The work was distributed evenly.
Everyone was involved in it
The exchange was good organized, why shouldn’t it work?
Sometimes I wasn’t really involved. But I think I have done a lot.
The videos were helpful, but only a little bit.
Everything was perfect
Nothing should be avoided!
Words I learned: stupido, ciao, come stai, …
My conclusion: it was ok
I would like to say thank you to Mrs. Bock, because she has done a lot for us, she has always been nice to us … not every teacher would act like this

Lukas Riebel

At our exchange we worked very much with the Website eTwinning in my group were Leon, Sebastian, Michael, Christina and our exchange partners. A problem was that sometimes some people did not want to work which also counts for me but it is hard that everybody works all the time. The most important part were the videos which were very good and helped us to learn some new words but the video only had italian subtitles so it was very hard to understand. The biggest experience I made was that you can make friends even if you only know them some weeks. If I had to describe the exchange with some italian words I would use amicizia and divertimento. All together the exchange was a very important experience and was much fun even if it was very stressful sometimes .

Sebastian Raeth

We spent a lot of Time at working on the Website e-twinning. Lukas Riebel, Leon Roth, Michael Salfetter and Christina Biebel were in my group and we worked very hard on our video about: How to Act in a Restaurant. Sometimes there was a little bit of Trouble in our group but finally we could present a funny movie to our Parents and Teachers.

Moreover, during our exchange , I made many new friendships with italian pupils and of course with german pupils. My best experience was the city Verone , where we went for shopping. on Italian:Centro Storico.

in General , the Exchange was a big experience and if i had the possibility for doing the Exchange again .. i would do

Maria Vittoria Nicolini

Before the German students came to Italy, I worked with Serena, Rebecca, Melania and Francesca. I edited the video so I had to work a little bit more but, as far as I’m concerned, I think we all worked together and  took our job seriously. We cooperated and everybody gave her contribute, and I also believe that our work is successful. I don’t think that something didn’t work and I wouldn’t change anything of our group. I did all I had to do to make our video a great video and, of course, I put a lot of time and a lot of effort in it.

During the first part of the exchange, I worked with the same group and also with our partners: Constantin, Leon, Sebastian, Jacqueline and Christina. We had a great time together, we had a lot of fun because it was difficult for them to speak Italian.

Eventually, in Germany I worked with Eleonora, Alice, Maria Chiara, Constantin, Anna, Lilli and Angelina. We worked fast and we made a great video in a little time; it was funny and interesting to work with them.

In my opinion, the videos made by the Germans were very useful and helpful because just by watching them, I learned a lot of new words and typical expressions; I also think that sometimes their videos were difficult to understand and the subtitles were not very clear but to sum up they were very good.

Talking about our exchange experience, I believe that the best thing was to get familiar with our partners and to learn things about their culture and daily routine. In these days (I mean of the whole project) I learned how to use the Etwinning platform, Tagul and Learning-apps, I believe that I will use this instruments again in the future because they’re useful.

I really enjoyed our experience here in Weiden and I think it has been useful also for our relationships between classmates because now we get along very well.

I will miss a lot everyone and every experience we had. The German expression that sums up better my experience is ‘Viel Spaß’ because that’s actually what we had.

Alessia Saetti

We were told about this exchange in October.
We immediately divided us into five groups and I was part of the “Restaurant Group” with Chiara Mescoli, Chiara Cinganelli, Anna Rachele Bazzoni and Sara Drusiani.
Each of us had to make instructional videos for our german partners, to make them learn how to behave in certain situations.
This work was fair enough, all of us took part in the shooting, and even if sometimes someone didn’t want to work at the end of the day everyone participated and the final work looked nice.
It’s true, we could have paid more attention to some details, but at the end it was good.
As far as I’m concerned I think everyone did his own best, also the other groups’ pupils.
The germans did same, so my partner Sophia and her group taught us how to present ourselves in the right way.
They were basic things that we already knew, but anyway they helped us in our linguistic knowledge.
I really liked many things and I will remember them forever.
This was my first time I travelled abroad and because of this, when I first got here, I looked at everything with child’s eyes and curiosity.
I would notice more details as possible, to keep everything in my mind.
Obviously I took a lot of photos, but the best memories are the ones the mind remembers.
For example, I liked her parents’ smile when they got knowing me, their kindness, the little cake they made me for my birthday and the little presents they gave me.
I also liked when Sophia wanted me to get knowing her friends and when they tried making me part in the conversation.
We laughed and jocked, we told each other pieces of our own stories, and even if I missed my family they always made me feel confortable.
I learned using Tagul, Etwinning, Drive and Learning Apps and even if I don’t know if I will use them in the future, it has been useful to know how to use them.
Here I grew not just because there was my birthday but also because each journey helps everyone’s formative growth.
I just wanted to stay here longer, but at the end I miss my family and I really want to see them.
An exchange’s experience is always useful, because you learn knowing other cultures that sourround you and how to accept the different as something good, not as bad.
I think some words that can resume this project can be: “Kennenlernen”, “Kenntnisse”, “Kultur”, “Freundschaft”.

Francesca Cipolli

Both in Germany and in Italy we worked with our German partners on Etwinning to learn how to interact with people who speak another language. We were divided into groups and we had to make a video to explain to the German students what to do in different situation. I was in the shop’s group with other four of my classmates and we worked hard to create a video which could help the German partners to understand our language. Everyone had a task: we all filmed and act in a scene and then one of us put together the video, one created a logo, one wrote the subtitles…
Thus we collaborate to make a useful video.
We all collaborated to the project, some people more than others, but the teachers made sure that we could know other people and create friendships in another countries. Some things could have been organized better, for example while we were working on Etwinning there was a little bit of confusion and sometimes we didn’t know very well what we had to do, but most of the time we had fun and worked well. Moreover I could have done something more, but I’m happy that I could partecipate in the project.
Also our German partners made videos for us trying to make us understand how to behave in a shop, in a restaurant or some German slang. Some videos were well done because it was easy to understand what they were saying, thanks also to the clear subtitles, but others were not so useful due to the disorganization of the group.
Some of the best moments I will never forget are the trips to several german cities, for instance Regensburg or Nürnberg, but also my excitement to know my partner and her family. In Italy it was easier for me to speak with my partner because I also hosted another German girl, Sophia, who was very extroverted and we talked all together. Instead in Germany it was more difficult because we are both shy, but thanks to her involving family I had a lot of fun and spent some wonderful time with them. One of the best things we did together was flying with a little airplane  over Weiden: it was a breathtaking experience that I won’t forget.
The thing of the exchange that I would avoid is to work too much on Etwinning instead of knowing more of the country that we are visiting or of the ways of life of German people.  
During the project I learned how to use a lot of technological instruments such as Etwinning, logos maker and keep-calm-o-matic. I will surely use again the logos maker not only for the school but also to make logos for me.
Etwinning was a new experience for me and also for my classmates, so at the beginning we had to learn how it works, but then it became easier.
In my opinion the exchange was very useful because we learned a new way of life and we improve our german. We also saw new cities and made new experiences for the first time in our lives. Maybe we didn’t know a lot of words in german, but we were able to communicate with our families through the few words and simple sentences that we made. Besides I was interested in tasting new food from Germany and in fact I have tasted a lot of typical food from Bayern, such as Brezel, kraut, Apfelkuchen, Rabarbarkuchen and a typical Brot.
I would describe my experience using the German words schön, super, toll, wunderbar, wunderschön.

Sofia Matilde Tafaro

My group was composed by five people: Sofia Bratti, Maria Chiara De Pompei, Marianna Del Mese, Maryam Aslam and me.
During the creation of the requested materials we tried to divide the work equally into us, for example some of us filmed the video and some edited it.
Of course everyone was interested in the making of the video and had a specific part. Every component of our group put himself in the progress of the videos and did his best, for this reason I don’t think we had to handle and face particular difficulties. We did our best to collaborate together in order to create satisfying and creative materials; that made us grow stronger as a team and made us become more responsible. In fact when you work in a group you have to offer suggestions but also to listen to other people’s opinion and consider them.
The one thing that maybe was a little challenging was creating something on our own even though we worked as a group. For example sometimes we felt like we had not enough time to upload the videos on the Etwinning pages and we had to ask out teacher for more explanations. But in the end I’m satisfied with the final result and the efficacy of our work.

The Germans found our videos useful and thanks to our project they learned some new words, the same goes for us Italians.
I found their videos helpful and clear, they were well done and well edited and I liked that they wrote subtitles so that we could understand everything they said. I really enjoyed watching the videos made by the Germans and discussing the contents in class with our teacher.
Thanks to their videos I learned many new things for example the language used by the young german people or how to approach with the families at home.
But maybe one thing that we could have changed and done better was the speed of our videos because some Germans told us that some scenes were faster than others. I understand what they meant but, personally, I believe that with more attention people could have understood us.

With this experience I new and bonded with many people, with Germans of course but I also got more attached to who I already knew before it. We became a big group and I hope we will keep in contact after this exchange.
Thanks to this project I had the opportunity to improve my German and English.
One more thing that I will always appreciate is that with his exchange I was given the opportunity to expose myself to new experiences, to give myself new challenges and to overcome them pretty well. I also learned to work with others and to approach in other languages with people I never met before.
During this exchange I also learned to use some useful programs: Etwinning, learning apps (with which we created some quizzes) and Google drive.

My favourite thing of this exchange was visiting new cities in Germany but also in Italy, for example Nürnberg, Regensburg, Verona and Bologna. I also liked the museums we saw and i liked having free time in the cities.
Finally, I support exchanges and projects like the one we made, because I think it’s a good way to know new people who are far from us. Of course, it is also an important and efficient way to create a bond with people from all over the world.

Some words that describe the exchange: Kennenlernen, besichtigen, Stadt, Freundschaft and Kulturen.

Our Posters

Now we’re going to show you the posters we made to represent the project. They have been written in three different languages that we have been using during the exchange, namely english, german and italian.

This is the link to our project:

https://twinspace.etwinning.net/28370/home